


Depth

by scy



Category: Doctor Who
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-01
Updated: 2010-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-05 14:09:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scy/pseuds/scy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Knowledge can bring uncertainty</p>
            </blockquote>





	Depth

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by a rewatch of s1 Doctor Who and with reading by seperis, who told me what worked.

The three of them were standing in the town square on some tiny planet when Jack grinned and said that it was nice to have a built in translator. "The things that you don't have to worry you're saying wrong-" He nodded, and Rose caught the Doctor rolling his eyes.

"And with that attitude, I think you can figure out how it works on your own."

Rose frowned at the Doctor, who just made a sour face back, and she sighed. It was too nice a day for her to worry about apologizing for him or listening to him complain about Human failings, and she resolved to ignore his bad mood.

"Or I'll ask this lovely lady," Jack said, bowing over Rose's hand. She batted at him, but didn't mind the attention. "You know, there's a telepathic field gets inside your head and makes it so you can understand all kinds of languages."

"Yeah, I got that when you didn't have any trouble understanding the Ulaines," Jack said.

"They were a bit cranky," Rose said. That was leaving out a lot of running and excitement, and she'd lost a good pair of jeans when the leg got scorched.

"Lasers and ropes can be a lot of fun, if you use them right, but they didn't have any manners at all," Jack said.

That made Rose blink. "Do I want to know what you're talking about?"

Jack waved a hand. "It was just one of those things. I'll tell you later." He gave Rose his full attention. "You were saying?"

"I was just thinking, you've got to have been wondering what was going on, right? I mean, the Doctor is way beyond anybody anywhere."

"He is unique." Jack propped his chin on his hand. "Gallifreyean, and the only one around these days."

Since the Doctor didn't like to talk about what had happened to his people, Rose perked up at getting any more information. "You know where he's from?"

"I worked for the Time Agency, Rose. We went back and forth in time, dealing with all sorts of situations, fixing things."

"But then you went off on your own."

"I had to, you can't hang around with people when they erase your memories." Jack's expression was forbidding, and Rose sat back just a bit.

"Why would they do that? I mean, you've got to have thought it through."

"I have, and you know, the problem with having two years of your life taken away is that you don't know what they took."

"But why? They were your bosses, right? Your friends?" Rose asked.

"Sometimes those are the most dangerous people of all," Jack said.

"Not if they're nice." Rose frowned. "What kind of job did you have?"

"I told you, I worked for the Time Agency."

"What's that, then? You're almost as bad as the Doctor, not wanting to tell me things because you think I won't understand."

"The Time Agency isn't something I want to get into right now." He shrugged. Another time, I promise. As for the Doctor, it's more that he worries you won't be able to handle it. You're still young, Rose Tyler, you've still got a lot to learn." Jack's smile was plainly meant to take the bite out of his words.

"Is that a come on?"

"Maybe," Jack said, which from him meant definitely yes.

"I don't even know where you were born, the Doctor's told me that, at least."

"A colony, nowhere special."

"Is that why you left?" Rose asked.

"There was a war. I signed up."

"What happened?"

"It went badly for us." Jack was looking past Rose's shoulder, but she didn't think he was seeing the TARDIS, but whatever he was remembering.

"That's when you joined the Time Agency?"

"Yeah."

"Did you like it?"

"Oh, it wasn't ever boring." Jack leaned back on his elbows, legs stretched out in front of him, and Rose flopped down beside him.

"So you went from being a soldier to a secret agent?"

Jack got a look on his face like he was working out what she'd just said on another level, like it mattered.

"That's one way to put it."

"Now you're a fugitive," Rose said. "Making trouble and hitting on everyone you meet."

"Not everybody," Jack said, and Rose laughed.

"Come on, you'd barely met me, and you were trying to get into my pants."

Jack gave Rose a thorough once over, and his voice was low when he answered. "I like the way you wear them."

"Stop that," Rose said, and frowned. "Be serious."

"I am."

"I don't just sleep with any bloke that fancies me."

"If you both like each other, then what's the problem?" Jack asked.

"You're kidding. Haven't you bounced around history enough to know what I mean?"

"No, explain this to me."

"It's not right to sleep with lots of people, and it's not safe, either," Rose said.

"Twenty first century customs are really charming, and dull," Jack said.

"Hey, this happens to be my century, and I like it."

"Doing what people tell you is right is boring. Think about it, if you'd listened to what they said about aliens, you never would have met the Doctor," Jack said.

"People have seen spaceships on Earth."

"It's not the same as living in one."

"I live with a couple of aliens too, since you're both not from Earth, and neither of you know what it means to be Human," Rose said.

"It's not that we don't care," Jack said. "The Doctor's always looking at what's going to happen a century down the line. I've noticed that he doesn't always pick up on what people are doing right now."

"Yeah, I can't let him go anywhere, otherwise he'll trip into something bad."

"I'm sure it's happened a time or two." Jack nudged her, and Rose shook her head.

"You've got no idea. I have to keep an eye on him."

"Why aren't you looking after him right now?"

"He's mucking about with the engine and he gets tetchy if I get in the way. Right now, being in the same room is distracting him."

"Oh, I don't think he's so worried you're going to break something."

"Then what's the matter with him? He's been a bit off since you hitched a ride with us," Rose said.

Jack smiled gently at her. "Why do you think he wanted to dance with you? With me watching?"

Rose covered her mouth. "He doesn't get jealous. I told him he was acting silly fussing over you, and he was too busy resonating concrete, or whatever to even dance with me properly."

"Well, he's never thought he needed to before."

"Aren't you a bit full of yourself?" Rose asked.

"With good reason."

Rolling her eyes, Rose scrambled to her feet. "Okay, when you and the Doctor start going on about how amazing you both are, I start falling asleep."

Jack wasn't offended. "Confidence isn't bragging."

"You sure? They sound a lot alike."

"Okay, enough of that, we were talking about the Doctor dancing." Jack smirked, and Rose knew what he was really saying.

She flushed. "I've never seen him, you know, dance before."

"From what I've seen, he doesn't do half bad."

"No, he's got a lot of talents." She thought about the Doctor and smiled. "He can't keep himself from showing off, but he's still got boatloads of secrets."

"I know," Jack said and looked serious for a second.

"How do you do that?"

Jack raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Guess what I'm going to say."

"I'm very good with people."

"Right, and animals, plants, and whatever, but you're doing stuff that I want, before I say it." Rose stopped in her tracks and stared hard at Jack. "Are you reading my mind? Can you do that?"

Jack was watching her closely. "I'm not a registered telepath, if that's what you're asking."

"You know I have no idea what that even is, so stop twisting my words. Can you tell what I'm thinking?"

"Not exactly," Jack said, and when Rose stiffened warningly, he continued. "I'm sort of empathic, and yeah that helps me figure out what you want, but I don't know what you're thinking right now, not without touching you and taking a peek inside your mind, and I don't do that without permission."

"Have you ever?"

"Yes."Rose was still, and for a moment she wasn't looking at Jack, who could almost be her friend, he'd been on his way to that and maybe something more, and now she was afraid.

Jack didn't move either, and Rose thought he was trying to make her relax so she wouldn't run away.

"Does the Doctor know what you've done?"

"He's guessed."

But Jack was still on board, which meant that the Doctor didn't think that Jack was dangerous, at least not to himself or Rose.

"I don't know what to say."

"You're afraid of me," Jack said.

"A little, can you blame me?" Rose asked.

"Do you want me to leave you alone?"

"I don't know," Rose said, and Jack nodded, got up and walked out of the room.

Rose watched him go, arms wrapped around her, taking it all in.

Some trips through time went well. Others were just awful, and they barely got out alive, or everybody else had a bad time of it. One of those involved a lot of angry engineers, who had been using their neighbors as for scrap genetic material. It had been going so well, until Rose stumbled into a cellar with body parts stacked beside an incinerator, a technician about to get rid of the latest evidence. They hadn't been pleased that foreigners had found it, and after that, the three of them had done a lot of running and breaking large machines.

Along the way, Jack and Rose had gotten taken hostage, and even though the Doctor had come to get them, they got shoved around. Rose had a bruise on her cheek and after he found them, the Doctor had touched it softly before bringing down several buildings and proving that he could be very scary, and wouldn't stop until he'd made his point.

"Bit extreme," Rose said when they were standing in the dust and rubble.

"They need to learn some manners," the Doctor said.

Jack grinned, his lip bloodied and his face scratched. "Yeah, and that's not something they'll forget."

It hadn't only been the Doctor who had gotten mad, and Rose could see the face of the man Jack had gotten a hold of, the one who had given up the plans of the Ulaines and everything else that Jack had been able to pick out of his head with a couple minutes and some low threats.

They limped back to the TARDIS, and the Doctor set a course very far away from the planet. Jack hung around, helping, and being more sensitive than usual until the Doctor told him to go and clean up.

As she watched him go, Rose spoke up. "Are you all right?"

"I'm just a little banged up, I'll be fine in a couple of days." Jack nodded toward the Doctor. "You'd better go and check on him." He headed out of the main chamber, running one hand over the wall of the TARDIS as he went.

For awhile after he'd left, Rose and the Doctor were sitting together silently. She knew that she had to say something, otherwise neither of them would. She hesitated, then put a hand on the Doctor's arm. It took a moment or two, but she waited for him to look up and nodded gratefully. "Thank you."

It could have been worse and they both knew it. They had seen their share of volcano days, and this time Rose was relieved that it had gone the way it had. Maybe she should have felt bad about those people, aliens, losing their businesses and stuff, but she didn't really like it when she got chucked in prison.

"You sure you're all right? Didn't fall down and hit your head?"

"No, I would remember that, and I don't have a headache," Rose said, relieved that they were back to him implying that Humans tended to get into trouble when he wasn't around, as if she didn't find loads more traveling with him than she'd ever dreamed of back home.

"Good, glad to hear that." The Doctor turned away and began fiddling with knobs and levers, like he hadn't been worried, and everything was back to normal. He wouldn't say anything else, not right off, and Rose wanted to lay down on something soft.

"If you need me, I'll be having a nap," Rose said. She went down the main hallway, then took the four turns toward her room, and then at the junction between the next corridor, she paused, and took the one to the right.

Jack's door was closed, but he'd never minded her stopping by, even after she'd been a little uncomfortable around him, and so she went inside, knocking twice, which was their code. Just like she thought, Jack wasn't asleep, he was on top of the blankets, an arm across his face. "Rose, what did you need?"

"A place to crash, do you mind?" Rose rested a knee on the edge of the bed, and Jack lifted his arm to look at her.

"No, go ahead."

Rose crawled up next to him and Jack pushed the other pillow toward her. Flopping down with a groan, Rose ignored the concern Jack didn't hide. "I'm fine, just a little sore."

"You hit that wall pretty hard."

"Yeah, and we're not telling the Doctor that, remember? I just got a couple bruises, you're the one that got into it with the guards."

"That was nothing."

Poking at Jack's shirt, Rose found the rips in it. "Yeah, and I had to clean it up." She glared. "Are we keeping that from him too?"

"Why not?" Jack turned gingerly on his side, and Rose mirrored him.

"I guess it's better." Pushing her hair out of her face, Rose yawned. "We're okay, aren't we?"

"I hope so."

"What's that mean?"

"Just that you're right."

"No, you were talking about the other day," Rose said. "The mind reading thing. You being inside my head without me knowing."

"Yes." Jack moved his fingers restlessly over the patch of blanket between them. "Does it still bother you?"

"Back on the planet, you were ready to rip that guy apart."

"If he didn't tell me what I wanted to know, I would have been upset," Jack said.

"Worse than that, I heard what you said, not all of it, but enough. You weren't going to let him get away with it."

"He hurt you, Rose."

"It's that simple?"

Jack didn't apologize or lower his eyes. "Yeah."

"What kind of world did you come from, Jack? Is it all dancing, like you said, or is it the other stuff too?"

"We dance, that's part of it, but we'll do whatever else we have to." His fingers were still moving, and Rose exhaled sharply as she laid her hand over his.

"I get it, like being with the Doctor, monsters and adventures, yeah?"

"As much as I can manage," Jack said, and eased closer by millimeters, and Rose did the same. They ended up very close, and she sat up long enough to kick her shoes off and then threw a foot over Jack's leg, tugging him onto her side of the bed.

"Mind if I fall asleep here?" Rose asked tentatively.

Jack's grin was like he one he gave her when they met, but she could tell that he really meant this one. "Please do."

Rose closed her eyes. "Tell me something?"

"What?"

"What does my mind feel like?"

"Right now?"

"Sure."

"Warm, tired," Jack laughed. "A little nervous."

"Nothing else?"

"I'm about to fall asleep, Rose, if you want better you have to ask me later."

"Maybe I will," Rose said, and Jack reached out and flicked her hair behind her ear again and then they both shut their eyes and fell asleep.


End file.
